Firecrackers
by Larkydancer
Summary: This is basically the movie Super 8 with another character added to it. Don't worry it's original! Pretty much all of the characters are in it... Ok, so the new character's name is Lark. She is hearing-impaired, but she never told her friends. With the alien coming to earth, will she handle her stress?
1. Chapter 1

"**Firecrackers"**

Chapter 1: Winter's Sorrow

Lark's POV

Pulling at my short, black dress, I walk through the crowd of adults, people who knew Mrs. Lamb, and I see the group of boys I have known since age 10. I sneak up behind Cary and cover his eyes quickly.

"What the hell?" he yells at me. I firmly keep my hands over his eyes. "Guess who?" I say in a disguised voice. He squirms in my hands, wanting so badly to escape.

"Um, it's Preston, right?" I drop my hands, shocked.

"You know what? I'll just talk to Joe. At least he knows who I am," I said, threatening to leave.

"No, Lark, I knew it was you! I was just teasing!" he chuckles nervously. I groan and walk back, my high heels clicking on the floor. Preston snickers and stuffs macaroni salad in his mouth.

"What was in the coffin, the thing that crushed her?" Cary asked. Charles groans and I snicker at his reaction. "You guys weren't wondering that?"

"No, I'm eating macaroni salad," Preston complains, shoving yet another mouthful of macaroni salad into his mouth.

"I was wondering that too," Charles admits. I nudge Preston to stop being grouchy.

"Steel beams, they weigh a ton, literally," he finally says, calming down on the macaroni salad.

"I don't know how you guys can eat," Martin finally says. I roll my eyes.

"Well, I don't know, maybe it's because our stomachs prefer not to throw up?" I say, sarcastically. Martin shoots me a look. Cary and I snicker.

"Just try a turkey roll and you'll see how," Charles replied to Martin. I immediately grab a turkey roll, realizing that I was hungry. It tasted like a turkey heaven.

"I don't think Joe'll want to do my movie now," Charles says.

"Why?" Martin asks, obviously clueless.

"Why do you think why? His mom just died!" Charles hissed.

"Yeah, but his mom is not a zombie," Preston says, defending Martin.

"But she's dead, shithead!" he shot back. Cary and I had to cover our mouths to stop laughing.

"I'm going to go talk to Joe, alright?" I say as soon as I stop laughing.

"No, don't!" all of the guys yell. The adults turn to look at Charles, Cary, Preston, and Martin. They chuckle and continue their conversations. I turn around.

"Well, why not? He must be lonely out there! And freezing!" I hiss.

"He wanted to be alone, shithead!" Charles hisses back. I lift my eyebrow and I fold my arms.

"Dude, you did not just call her that!" Martin says.

"Well, I had to! It's not my fault!" he protests.

"Actually, it isn't her fault she cares how Joe feels. Her dog died when she was eight," Preston replies. I shifted uncomfortably.

"It's alright. I'll just go," I say. I head towards the front door. Just as I reach for the door handle, the door smacked me to the ground. I see feet step over me.

"Lark, are you ok?" I hear Cary's familiar voice and someone helping me up. I wobble and sway, dizzy. I lift my hand to my ears. My hearing-aids, gone! I burst into tears and fall against the floor, my hands brushing all over the tile floor.

"Guys, did you, um, know that she couldn't hear?" Preston asked, stating the obvious. I find my hearing-aids and a sigh of relief brushes over me. I forgot. I never told them that I'm partially deaf.

"Oh, so that's why we always have to look at her when we talk to her?" Charles says. I groan and I walk straight out the door. I wave bye to Joe and I quickly cross the street.

**Cary's POV**

"What the hell?" Charles exclaims. "Why do you think she didn't tell us?"

"Oh, I don't know! Why don't you ask her?" Preston hisses at Charles, obviously agitated. I think she didn't want to be made fun of for something that wasn't even her fault. I get that a lot with how tall I am… Not very tall.

"Maybe she didn't want to get made fun of?" I suggest.

"What? That's crazy!" Charles says.

"We should all just go and talk to her," Preston suggests.

"I'll go tell Joe! Maybe he'll want to come!" I say. I rush out the door and I run towards Joe.

"Joe! Joe! We are going to go talk to Lark! Want to come?" I say. He sighs and gets off of the swings.

"Sure. Why?" he says.

"Well, long story. We'll tell you on the way there," I explain.

**Lark's POV**

I open my bedroom door and fall into my safe, cozy blanket. I take off my hearing-aids and plug in my iPod earphones, only to hear a rather loud knock. I immediately pull out the earphones and plug my hearing-aids back in. I open the bedroom door and I see the five boys grinning and holding a bag full of turkey rolls. Boy, do they know how to cheer me up! Food!

"What do you guys want?" I ask. They shove the bag of turkey rolls towards me and sit down next to me on my purple bed.

"Nice room!" Cary says.

"God, shut up, Cary. Anyways, is there anything you want to explain to us? About the hearing loss and all?" Charles says.

"You guys care this much about me? Enough to bring food and Joe when he is sad?" I ask. Wow. This is more than I can handle.

"Yeah, we care about our friends, dummy!" Cary exclaims.

"Cary!" Joe exclaims. I grin.

"What?" he says, unaffected by his comment.

"Ok, well, here goes nothing. When I was two, I had a horrible cold. It got really bad, so bad that my hearing disappeared forever. I learned how to read lips and that's how I survived on not hearing a thing until I was four. My mom took me to the audiologist to see if her suspicions were true, that I really lost my hearing. It was a seventy-five percent hearing loss. They gave me hearing-aids and that's how I started hearing for the first time," I explain. I took out my hearing-aid and showed it to the guys. Their eyes were wide and they were speechless.

"Oh my gosh," Cary says after a while.

"Now you know the truth," I said, officially.

"You really do have it worse than me, after all those times," Joe says. I nod and get up.

"Ok, you guys really need to get going. I want to eat my turkey rolls in peace," I say.

"Aw! You're not going to give me one?" Cary whines. I shake my head and push the guys out of the door. I sigh and climb into my purple bed and take out my hearing-aids. I turn out the light and drift into dream world.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you all for waiting patiently for this chapter. I was very busy with schoolwork (stupid algebra) and I had several dance competitions (we got first for all of the dances!) and memorial weekend was practically the only weekend I had off… I know those aren't very good excuses, but here's the chapter! Enjoy and review!**

**4 months later…**

*Lark's perspective*

Ring! That's the bell! School is officially out for the summer! I grab my bag and rush out of Mrs. Mullin's English class. I run to my locker, locker 347, next to my pyromaniac best friend, Cary's, of course. I open it and dump all of my stuff into my blue and purple backpack.

"Hey Lark! What's up?" I hear that familiar voice of Joe.

"Well, for one thing, school's out!" I reply. He laughs and opens his locker. Just as I was closing my locker, I feel a really hard shove and I knock Joe over.

"Cary! What the hell?" I say, helping Joe up. "Joe, are you ok?" Cary chuckles. I shove him into Martin, causing him to vomit all over his locker, causing Cary to laugh even harder. I literally have not seen that many colors in my life.

"Well, bye guys," I hear Joe say.

"Bye!" I yell after him. "C'mon, Smartin, let's get you all cleaned up." I motion Martin to the boy's bathroom.

"Cary, you better help him clean up, after all, it's basically your fault," I tell him. He groans, slouches, and walks with Martin to the bathroom. I follow the crowd of people out the door and I look around. I see Joe and Charles walk towards the street. I quickly run to catch up.

"Hey guys, wait!" I yell to them. They turn around and grin. I run up to them.

"We have a new scene," Charles announces, handing the spiral to Joe. I look over his shoulder as he flips through the spiral.

"Detective Hathaway has a wife now?" he asks. Charles shrugs.

"I dunno. It might make a better movie,"

"Who's playing the wife? Jen?" I scoff.

"Why in the world would Charles want his bitchy sister in his film?" I say.

"No way! I told you what she did to my top hat!" Charles hissed.

"What wife?" Cary interrupts Charles as he was about to announce who got the part of the wife. I certainly did not want to play it. I'm horrible at acting.

"Alice Dainard," I see Joe stop in surprise. He runs to catch up. "I was returning a book on codes and ciphers and I saw her reading in the silent reading section. I asked her if she'd play the part of the wife." Charles finished.

"You're not supposed to talk at all in the silent reading section," Cary interrupts, again.

"Shut up," Charles says, quite annoyed.

"It's for silent reading," Cary finishes, tossing his messy blonde hair out of his face. I roll at Charles' antics against rules, and got a gumball from the machine to give to my brother later since I couldn't eat gum due to my braces.

"She said yes and she's driving," Charles says walking into Carol's to order his beloved milkshake. I follow him and order my favorite Friday snack, a vanilla milkshake. It's not like I'll get fat from this, I told my mom at the beginning of the year and she consented to having a Friday snack at Carol's with the guys.

"Driving, driving where?" Joe says, curiously. He comes to the counter and orders an ice cream bar. Cary orders his favorite: Fourth of July Sherbet Shake. He says it reminds him of fireworks. Typical Cary. I finish my shake and wave goodbye to the guys and run to get my bike from the bike rack before the staff leave. I hop on and ride to my house to get ready for the midnight filming. Of course I plan my outfits! I'm a girl! I drop off the red gumball in my brother's room and walk into my room. I laid out my pink and purple collared shirt and my magenta stretchy jeans. I check the time: 5:12. I groan and sit to think of what to do. Then the greatest idea hit me! I should visit Alice!


	3. A Visit with Alice

**A/N: Thank you, Anna the Viking for reviewing on the second chapter! Here is the third chapter, and hopefully it's a longer chapter… I tried. But anyways, this is the third chapter for everyone who reviewed and follows this story.**

I change into tonight's clothes, tug my pink converses on and hop on my bike. Alice's house is two miles away, so it takes me a half hour to get there. I hop off my bike, my too-big-bike-apparently-I'll-grow-into bike, and place it carefully next to Alice's cute sky blue bike which is at least two times bigger than mine. I run up to the door and knock. Alice answers and she gasps at me.

"Ally?" I say.

"Oh my gosh! Larky! I missed you so much!" she yelps, hugging me tightly.

"It's been three years!" I say.

"Wow, that long?" she asks.

"Yeah, it's really surprising. Can I come in?"

"Of course!" I step into her house and walk up the stairs to her room. She always had us stay in her room because her dad won't bother us up there. Her room looks practically the same: light blue walls, small bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and posters on the wall. I instinctly hop onto her bed.

"So, why are you here?" she asks.

"Oh, Charles told me you were planning on playing the wife in the short film we're making. I thought I'd come by to wait with you," I explain. She nods and sits next to me on her bed.

"Yeah, I thought it would be fun," she says.

"So, how's school?" I ask. Since we haven't been together for so long, I need to know what's been happening.

"Well, school was good, except for Mrs. Mullin's English class," she explains. "She is so scary!" I laugh.

"Well, of course she is! I have her for sixth period," I say.

"Mine's fourth period. Anyways, how's dance going for you?" she asks.

"It's really good, but I take a break for the summer," I say. I look over to the clock: 10:45. Whoa, time moves really fast.

"How about ride our bikes around the neighborhood while we wait for midnight to come?" She smiles widely.

"Yeah! I can race you!" she says. I race her to the door and I beat her there. We walk towards our bikes. I hop onto my bike and start pedaling towards the stop sign and down the hill.

"Race you to the cemetery!" Alice yells. I'm actually surprised I could hear her, considering my horrible hearing. I pedal faster and ride over the sidewalk and into the gates of the cemetery. I turn around before Alice could get to the sidewalk and I grin smugly at her. She sticks her tongue out playfully and follows my bike up the hill to her house. I laugh and hop off my bike. She pulls up next to me.

"Hah! I beat you!" I say, laughing. She laughs and checks her watch.

"It's 11:50. We should go pick up the guys," she says. I nod and I hop into the car and waited for her to grab the keys so we could go. We start driving to the meeting spot near Charles' house.

"Aren't you a little young to be driving?" I ask.

"Yeah, but my dad doesn't care unless it gets scratched," she confirms. I see the boys sitting on Charles' lawn, waiting for us. We pull up and roll down the window.

"Hey Alice, Lark," Charles says.

"Joe Lamb? He's the deputy's kid! What is he doing here?" Alice shrieks. I'm shocked by her reaction.

"Makeup and special effects," Charles says.

"You knew that?" Joe says, looking pleasantly surprised.

"Charles, I don't have a license. I can't drive with him," she says, grumpily. I groan and set my heat on my hand.

"Well, if you want him to stay back, I guess-" Charles begins.

"What?!" Joe hisses at Charles. I turn to Alice.

"Ally, he's not the type of kid to tell on people to his dad, especially his friends," I say to Alice. She glares accusingly at the boys.

"You can trust me. My dad will never know," Joe says.

"Get in," she finally says. I grin and fistpump. Cary hops in next to me and Charles next to me. Martin, Joe and Preston climb into the backseat. I highfive Cary. We drive for a while before anyone says anything.

"So, I wrote some new lines. Do you want to see them?" Charles says, finally breaking the silence. Alice shakes her head.

"What? New lines? Charles, do I have new lines?" Martin interrupts. I roll my eyes. I'm pretty sure everyone else did, too.

"You know what would be great? If you could cry in the scene. Can you do that?" Charles says, ignoring Martin's protests.

"No," Alice replies.

"I'm impressed," Preston interrupts.

"You know the first place I'll drive when I get my license?" Cary asks. Leave it to Cary to bring up a totally random topic. "Newcastle, Pennsylvania. Fireworks capital of America." I should have guessed.

"Want one?" Joe says, quietly, handing a twizzler to Alice. She takes it rather sharply. I turn around.

"Joe, can I have one? Please?" I ask. He smiles and hands me a twizzler. I happily eat it until we get there.

**A/N: Here's Chapter 3! Enjoy and review, please! I'll get chapter 4 up as fast as possible!**


	4. Acting Chops Part 1

**Chapter 4**

**A/N: Sorry I haven't updated recently! I had the last few days of school, and then I had dance nationals, that I won mostly first places in my dances and for my solo, thank you very much. And then, after that, I had a family vacation to Washington, DC, which was wonderful. I returned this morning. **** I live in California so that was a huge deal. We saw EVERYTHING! But still, these aren't excuses. But I'm back now! Hopefully, I'll get all of my new chapters on this week before my ballet summer intensive… Ok, here's chapter 4, to those of you who actually read my author's notes and to the people who review. **

Lark's point of view

"Guys, there's an electrical outlet up there!" Charles says with such enthusiasm. I get out of the car and frown.

"Of anything, why that?" Cary asks.

"No one cares about the electrical outlet fantasy in your mind," I say. He glares at me and I chuckle. I grab several boxes of film and walk to a bench to set them down.

"Charles, do I have new lines or not?" Martin asks. "Oh no!" He runs after his script, which blew out of his hands. I chuckle and settle into the splits naturally, usually when I have nothing to do.

"Well, you just lost all your new lines, Martin," Preston said in his normal sarcastic snottiness. Cary walked up to me and plopped down on the bench. Charles grabbed an armful of equipment from the trunk of Alice's car and walked up to the platform. He drops them off with a sigh.

"Jesus, Lark, do you have to stretch?" Charles practically yells at me. I shrug and switch to my left splits.

"Hey Lark, I can do it too!" Cary says. He is not even close.

"Hahahaha, no," I say sarcastically.

"Preston, get into costume! Joe, get the camera ready and make sure everyone has their costume on before you do the make-up! Lark, come on, help Cary film and make sure he doesn't blow shit up. Cary, you heard me," Charles directs.

"When can I tell people what to do?" I ask him, whining a little.

"When you're the director of your own movie," he says, a little bit too loudly.

"Fine, I'll go write my own zombie movie and then not invite you," I tease.

"Come on, get to work," he says exasperatedly and gestures for me to move. I roll my eyes and help Joe set up the camera and I go to sit next to Cary and Preston, who obviously aren't doing anything.

"I opened a pack of cherry bombs and made my own M-80's. Do you want to see it?" Cary asks Preston so 'innocently'.

"Your obsession with fireworks, and I'm saying this as a friend, concerns me… and my mother," Preston says, testing the camera.

"Seriously, Cary, I think you're a bit too obsessed. And even I can agree with Preston right now," I tell him. He shrugs.

"Why do you care?" he asks.

"Because I can, and besides, you're my best friend," I tell him.

"Really?" he says, his face lighting up.

"Yeah! I'm bored," I announce.

"Well, what are you going to do? Pull your leg to your face?"

"Yes, exactly," I tell him. I walk near the column and pull my right leg to my face.

"What the hell?" Charles says (yells).

"Whoa, Lark, that's awesome!" Joe says and Alice gives me a thumbs-up. Hehe, I'm the center of attention. I grin. I see Cary attempting to pull his leg up to his face, but he fails badly and falls on Preston,while I laugh so hard.

"People, into position!" Charles yells. Everyone sluggishly scrambles to their spots.

"Ok, you two are on the station. Alice, you really don't want your husband to leave," Charles explains.

"I know, we read it," Alice says, rolling her eyes.

"God, I'm just directing," he replies. "Martin, she doesn't want you to leave so you need to reassure her." He walks past Martin. "Wait, do you know what 'reassure her' means?"

"Yeah, I think so," Martin says.

"Smartin is so smart, he doesn't even know what a basic word means!" I whisper loudly to Cary.

"Yeah!" he whispers back.

"Hey! That's offensive!" Martin protests. We burst into laughter.

"Ok, Preston, I need you in this," Charles shouted, moving towards Preston. "Put this coat on and a few seconds after I say action, you walk up to the payphone and pretend like it's busy. 'hello, hello?'"

"I know what that looks like," Preston says, annoyed. Cary and I sit on the steps playing with bits of firecrackers. Cary takes his lighter and lights his new cherry bomb. It goes off and everyone's head turns to face us, especially Charles. Uh oh.

"Asshole, can you stop blowing shit up for two seconds and deal with the camera?" Charles yells and Cary.

"God, sorry man!" Cary says, unapologetic.

"Charles, seriously, I swear, you have anger issues," I tell him. I walk up to Cary.

"Cary, if you don't clean up your cherry bomb ashes, I control camera tonight!" I tease.

"Aw, and you won't help? The kind of friend you are!" he says, acting hurt. I walk to get the film and put it into the camera.

"And… Action!" Charles commands. It's just a practice shot so they use their scripts.

"With the zombie attacks going on, I think it would be safer for you to get out of town for a couple of days," Martin read off the script.

"John, I don't like it, this case, these murders," Alice read.

"Sweetheart, this is my job,"

"Zombie attacks? I think you're in danger,"

"What do you want me to do, go to Michigan with you?"

"Mackinac Island's beautiful this time of year,"

"It's still my job,"

"John, I've never asked you to stop. I've never asked you to give up or walk away, but I'm asking you now," Alice begins to tear up. "Please, for me. I just love you so much." Martin was just speechless for a few seconds and so was everyone else.

"I love you too," Martin finally remembers.

"Was that good?" Alice says, impatiently. Everyone is just speechless.

"Yeah, that was great," Charles replies.

**A/N: And that's the end of chapter 4! Please review! I'll try to post some more!**


	5. Acting Chops Part 2

**Chapter 5**

**A/N: Here's chapter 5! The moment you all have been waiting for! Or maybe you're sleeping. Sorry, I live in California. I don't live in your time zone. But seriously, enjoy and review! This is for the people who review! You know who you are. Even the anonymous review, I saw that, so thanks. Now enjoy Chapter 5!**

Lark's point of view

A train whistle blows in the distance. Or it must not be so distant because I obviously can't hear. Charles brightens up and runs to get a closer look.

"Production value! Cary, you put the film in the camera, right?" Charles says, eagerly.

"I didn't put it in," he replies, nonchalant. Crap! I forgot to tell him that I put a new one in!

"What? Put it in, put it in!" he yells. "Preston, get into position!"

"I will, I just have to get the money," he says. Wait, why am I watching the action? I run towards Cary, who struggles to replace the film with his newly wrapped wrist. Hey, I didn't notice that before. Focus, Lark.

"Shut up, I'm trying!" Cary yells at Charles, who is trying to rush him. When I get there, he is luckily still struggling to pull it out.

"Cary, that's the new film. I replaced it," I told him and calmly closed the cover to the film pack, while hearing Charles panic, something about missing the train as a production value.

"What the hell?! You could've told me sooner!" he yells at me.

"Hey, I tried! Charles was pushing me out of the way!" I protest. I run to Alice.

"Hi, you nervous?" I ask while straightening out her trenchcoat.

"Nope! Well, maybe a little," she replies.

"Martin, you know your lines!" Charles roars behind me.

"Don't be, you'll be great!" I say and give her a thumbs-up. She smiles. I run to the camera, almost there and BAM! Cary knocked me down!

"Cary!" I yell.

"What?" he asks, "innocently".

"Why did you shove me to the floor?"

"Oh that, yeah, you're not cameraman tonight," he says, grinning mischievously. I groan and go to stand by Joe.

"Ok, guys, be sure to be extra loud when the train passes by, and…. Action!" Charles directed.

"With all the zombie attacks going on, I think it would be safer if you left town for a couple of days," Martin acts.

"John, I don't like it, this case, these murders!" Alice yells just before the train passes. I don't hear anymore dialogue, but Charles obviously can, with his headphones and everything. I turn around to watch the train pass, because that's the only thing left to do. I watch for a few seconds and then the pickup truck comes onto the tracks… Wait, what? A pickup truck driving on the tracks? I rub my eyes to get a clearer view and there is, in fact, a blue pickup truck just driving on the tracks! Hey, that truck looks familiar… I turn around and I see that Alice is giving out her final lines (I read her lips, duh). I look again and I hear Joe yell.

"Guys, watch out!"

"Joe, what the hell are you—" Charles yells. Then the impact happens and the train basically goes up in flames. I freeze and watch, both in awe and in fear.

Cary's point of view

"Guys, RUN!" I am pushed to the ground. I obviously didn't get a great start. I notice Lark still staring at the explosion, which I admit is awesome, but we can't get hurt! I grab her arm and run after Joe and Charles. Hehe, I'm holding her hand! Cary, we've got to focus! I run but I don't feel like we are advancing on them at all.

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Charles yells. Yeah, me neither, but what do I have to do with your personal problems? Then all of a sudden, a flaming train part fell in front of us! I run after Charles, who split up with Joe. Something blew up behind us and sent us flying in the air! I screamed, losing my grip on Lark's hand, who seems equally scared. We fall and I land on top of Charles. I wait a few seconds for the impact to register.

"Cary, can you get your skinny ass off of me?" Charles yells at me. I roll off and I stand up.

"Oh, and you can't manage not to annoy me in a hard time," he rolls his eyes.

"Sorry," I say. "Where's Lark? She was with me."

"I don't know, I don't see her," he says. I browse the area, but to no avail. I hope she didn't land on something too hard.

"Well, let's go find the others," Charles sighs. I nod and follow him through the debris forest. It's like a junkyard of flames here! If I wasn't in a life or death situation, I would definitely marvel at the flaming debris. But we've still got to find our friends. We walk for a while, but then we hear voices!

"I think I'm having a heart attack. And I have a scrape," I see Preston obsess over his scrape. We walk over the pile of debris that's in the way.

"Joe! Oh my god," Charles exclaimed.

"Did you see the explosions?" I marvel.

"I thought you died!" he says.

"That was unbelievable!" I says.

"Why did this have to happen?" Martin crys.

"Martin, it's ok," Preston assures him.

"No, it's not, dude, look around you!" he sobs. I see some reddish liquid on a piece of debris.

"Oh no," Joe says. It could be Lark! Or Alice, but I'm more concerned about Lark.

"What's all that blood?" I hear a voice behind us. I look up. It's Alice! "What's the blood? Did someone get hurt?" I see Joe put his hand under the rock and tug on something.

"It's my fake blood! It's fake!" Joe says excited that no one seems hurt.

"Wait, where's Lark?" I ask. Everyone shook their head and murmured.

"Guys? I'm over here," I hear a weak little voice.

**A/N: And that's the end of chapter 5. Sorry if some of the lines are different than the movie.**


	6. Aftermath Class

**Chapter 6**

**A/N: My friend started to read my fanfiction and now she has an obsession. So basically, I'm writing another chapter for her. Happy now, Lisa?**

Lark's point of view

After that explosion, I landed hard on my wrist and my ankle. I know it shouldn't have hurt that much but I have a suspicion that there is metal stuck in my foot. So much for being safe.

I get up and (painfully) limp through the debris forest. Now I need more bandages than ever. I start hearing voices. Now, since my hearing is quite horrible, I must be rather close, but I never know when people could be shouting. Who knows?

"It's my fake blood! It's fake!" that must be Joe.

"But wait, where's Lark?"

"I'm over here," I say. That was a little weaker than I had meant, but I think they heard me. I sit down, cradling my hand that I had landed on. The fingers were crooked in gnarly directions and it was starting to turn a sickly green. My foot didn't look too bad, so I suppose it is a sprain. It's still bad, but my hand is worse.

"Lark, are you ok?" Cary asked. He is the first to find me. I nodded that I was ok, but I don't want people knowing how bad my situation is. Even if it is my friends. I struggle to stand and I try to walk normally, but it hurts a lot.

"Are you ok?" Joe asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine, and it seems like you all are ok," I reply as strongly as I possibly can. "Can you help me up?" Cary helps me onto the tall train car that surprisingly is still mostly intact. We walk to the end to look over the train car.

"According to my uncle Seth, an accident like this is extremely rare," Preston informs us.

"It wasn't an accident," Joe tells him. "There was a truck on the train tracks."

"You saw that too?" I ask. He nods, shocked that I knew.

"What, you mean it was driving on the tracks?" Charles exclaims.

"Yeah, it's over there," he points to a very destroyed car.

"Oh my gosh," Cary says. Joe starts to climb down the car to see who was the driver.

"Guys, can you help me get down?" I ask. Cary helps me down the ladder.

"A pick-up truck derailing a train? That's impossible," Charles announced.

"Obviously, it isn't," Preston countered. I hobble towards the blue truck. I'm still wondering. Does it belong to who I think it does?

"Oh my god, it's him," Charles gasps.

"It is, yeah, for sure," Preston agrees.

"Who is it?" Martin asks, clueless as usual.

"I think it is," I agree.

"Doctor Woodward," Alice steps closer to the car.

"Doctor Woodward, the science guy?" Martin asks, once again, clueless.

"Biology," Preston tells him.

"Honors biology," Charles corrects him.

"Oh, I'm not in his class," Martin says.

"We know, Smartin," Cary says.

"Just shut up, Cary," Smartin scowls.

Alice tries again to wake Doctor Woodward up, but something falls out of his hand. She opens it up. I walk over to her, aware that my ankle hurts like hell.

"Map of the Contiguous United States," Preston reads.

"What's the writing?" Joe asks.

"Dates and times," Alice replies.

"Guys, this is the schedule for the train!" I realize. Suddenly, the map was knocked down. Everyone screams.

"Who are you?" Doctor Woodward asks.

"Doctor Woodward, it's me, Charles Kaznyk. You've been in an accident. You're going to be ok," Charles explains. Woodward pulls out his gun and we scream and step back.

"Holy shit!" Charles exclaims.

"They will kill you. Do not speak of this, or else, you… and your parents will die," he says. I see lights in the distance behind him and I nudge Cary and Martin and point.

"Go!" Woodward shouts at us, pointing the gun towards us. I start running and I run to the car, slowly slowing down. Crap! My ankle hurts so badly. Everyone passes me.

"Guys, be careful, there's nails everywhere," Preston says. I fall down, near the car and everyone rushes past me to get the equipment.

"Alice, help!" I cry out. She grabs my hand and lifts me up and I plop down in the seat next to hers quickly so I don't hurt myself further.

"Guys, move your asses, go!" Alice yells to the guys as the blinding lights get closer. They grab all the equipment and run to the car. They hop into the backseat and Alice pushes on the gas.

**A/N: And that's the end of chapter 6! Enjoy and review!**


	7. Ride Home

**Chapter 7**

**A/N: I felt like writing, so here's chapter 7! Please enjoy! **

Lark's point of view

"He had a gun! An actual, physical gun!" Preston shouts. I cradle my hand. It is still a sickly green, but it isn't feeling any better.

"Am I the only one shaking? And I'm also crying!" Martin complained. Cary starts playing with my hair.

"Shit! The focus ring fell off!" Charles cusses. I roll my eyes. I'm not too frazzled by this, but apparently, the rest of us aren't taking it too well.

"No one cares about your camera!" Cary tells him. Charles glares at him, but I'm too upset to laugh. I mean, I'm not too shaken up, but I'm upset enough to not be my normal self. Plus, there's the fact that it's probably way past two in the morning.

"My dad can't find out I took his car," Alice says. Her dad isn't the type of guy to take these things lightly. I know that from experience.

"We won't tell anyone," Joe tells her. She doesn't look too sure. Joe turns to us. "Guys, we're not telling anyone anything, are we?" A chorus of no's are shout out. He turns back to Alice. "See? No one will know." I rest my head on Cary's shoulder and the purr of the engine soon lulls me to sleep.

Cary's point of view

As soon as Lark's head touched my shoulder, I relaxed. This whole situation is worse than at home. Well, hopefully, no one finds out about all of the bruises on my arms, my legs, everywhere.

The car slows to a stop. I don't want to wake up Lark, but I have to. I shake her arm a little bit and she jolts to attention.

"What did I miss?" she asks.

"We're at the meeting place. Let's go home," I tell her. I wave bye to Alice and I help Lark out of the car. "You might want to wrap your hand and your ankle."

"Nah, it's fine," she replies. We walk up to her house and I wave bye. Hopefully, things will be ok at home. At least my house is only two houses down so I don't have to walk far. I open the door and I smell the whiskey in the air. This is a bad night. I walk up the stairs as quietly as possible. Almost there and… in my room! I made it without Dad noticing! I walk into my bathroom, which I'm lucky enough to have connecting to my room, and I hop into the shower. The dirt and ashes wash away to reveal all of my purple bruises, all attacks from Dad. Of course, he was very drunk when he gave them to me. I wash my hair and climb out of the shower. I grab my bandages for my hand. That wasn't my dad's fault. I blew up a new bottle rocket and my hand didn't get out of the way in time. I quickly wrap my hand and hop into my bed and fell into a deep sleep.


End file.
